5-6 God’s Message:

“Cursed is the strong one
    who depends on mere humans,
Who thinks he can make it on muscle alone
    and sets God aside as dead weight.
He’s like a tumbleweed on the prairie,
    out of touch with the good earth.
He lives rootless and aimless
    in a land where nothing grows.

7-8 “But blessed is the man who trusts me, God,
    the woman who sticks with God.
They’re like trees replanted in Eden,
    putting down roots near the rivers—
Never a worry through the hottest of summers,
    never dropping a leaf,
Serene and calm through droughts,
    bearing fresh fruit every season.

* * *

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That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
    they will not see prosperity when it comes.
They will dwell in the parched places(A) of the desert,
    in a salt(B) land where no one lives.

“But blessed(C) is the one who trusts(D) in the Lord,
    whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
    that sends out its roots by the stream.(E)
It does not fear when heat comes;
    its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought(F)
    and never fails to bear fruit.”(G)

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